This year, the highly popular annual contribution to the Best American series from McSweeney's editor and part-time pirate Dave Eggers features an introduction by the late Ray Bradbury on the subject of reading anything and everything, dictated just weeks before he died. Eggers and his writing students unearth pieces from Kevin Brockmeier, Junot Díaz, Louise Erdrich, Julie Otsuka, George Saunders, and Jess Walter, to name a few, as well as comic strips by Nora Krug and Adrian Tomine, and Best American Letters in the Mail, Best American Minutes from the General Assembly of the Occupy Wall Street, and Best American Tweets Responding to the Death of Osama bin Laden. Since its inception in 1915, the Best American series has become the premier annual showcase for the country's finest short fiction and nonfiction. Though Nonrequired Reading is unique in having its own editorial process among Eggers and the students of 826 Valencia in San Francisco and 826 Michigan in Ann Arbor, for the other Best American titles a series editor reviews hundreds of periodicals, then selects between 50 and 100 outstanding works. The guest editor—a recognized expert in the field—then pares the list down to the 20 or so very best pieces.